Rabaa 'massacre' commemorated in Turkey

An attack by the Egyptian military regime which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood supporters one year ago was commemorated across Turkey on World Rabaa Day

ISTANBUL – Hundreds of people in Istanbul Thursday marched to commemorate the hundreds of pro-Morsi Egyptians killed when their camp in Rabaa square in Cairo was destroyed a year ago today.

The protestors, including representatives from Turkey’s largest civil service union Memur-Sen and Hak-Is marched from Tunel square to Galatasaray High School in Istanbul.

Speakers included member of the newly formed, Egyptian Revolutionary Council, Maha Azam. “President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi and Mohammed Ibrahim, the current Interior Minister, and those who supported them in the current government are responsible for the killings of our people, for the oppression in the streets, for the rapes in the prisons, and they will be held accountable,” Azam told the crowds.

Abdur Rahman Dilipak, writer for the Turkish pro-government daily, Yeni Safak, and co-founder of the International Rabia Platform, said Turkey stood with the oppressed and that those who took the blood of innocents would hear from the Turkish people.

Hundreds of people also gathered in the capital city of Ankara and the southern city of Izmir to commemorate the massacre. There were also marches in the cities of Aydin, Denizli and Manisa in southern Turkey.

“Rabaa,” meaning four or the fourth in Arabic, has become the sign of anti-coup protests in Egypt. Just a few hours before the massacre on August 14, anti-coup protesters in Egypt tried to voice their demands to the world by raising their four fingers.

The crowds chanted slogans against the military regime in Egypt, the military invasion of Gaza and killing of Palestinians by Israel, as well as against the oppression of Muslims in East Turkestan, the Turkic-speaking region which China considers the province of Xinjiang.